Mr. Kershaw brings his 12-2, 1.76 ERA record to the hill tonight to face right-hander Julio Teheran and his 10-6, 2.71 ERA record. He missed his spots the other night on Jimmy Kimmel Live, but I imagine he’ll do a little better tonight.

Zack Greinke brings his sparkling home record of 6-1 with a 2.73 ERA to bear against the Braves. The last time he faced them he threw seven scoreless innings against them in June of 2013. He’ll be opposed by 23-year-old lefty Alex Wood, who’s 7-8 with a 3.44 ERA in his first full major league season.

The Dodgers optioned newly-acquired Darwin Barney to Albuquerque and sent Great Lakes pitcher Jonathan Martinez to the Cubs as the PTBNL.

Los Angeles is in uncharted territory. Tonight will be the first time it’s tried to extend a four-game winning streak to five all season.

Josh Beckett goes back to the hill for the Dodgers, hoping his hip impingement has healed up and he can get back to the form which has him at 6-5 with a 2.52 ERA on the year. Getting back to the way he was the day he pitched his no-hitter is probably too much to ask for.

Beckett will face old friend Aaron Harang, who has been a savior for the Braves this season. He was signed only a week before the season started, and he’s got a 9-6 record with a 3.31 ERA, with 18 quality starts in 21 tries. In 16 of those starts he’s allowed two earned runs or fewer.

Hyun-Jin Ryu will try to make it three straight strong performances by Dodgers’ starters, following Zack Greinke’s 7-inning 4-hit effort on Friday night and Kershaw’s complete game 2-hit shutout yesterday. Ryu is 11-5 with a 3.39 ERA overall this season and 7-2 on the road with a 2.73 ERA. Michael Lananna of MLB writes that Ryu has added Josh Beckett’s curveball and Kershaw’s slider into his arsenal.

The Padres send out Jake Peavy, who got to San Francisco in mid-game yesterday and was announced as today’s pitcher almost immediately. The fact that he’s 14-2 with a 2.21 ERA in 25 career starts against the Dodgers might have swayed Manager Bruce Bochy’s decision.

Kershaw vs. Vogelsong. Kershaw (11-2 with a 1.92 ERA) was handed his first loss of the season by the Giants back in May in a seven-inning, three-run performance. Overall, though, he’s 11-5 with a 1.48 ERA in 23 games (22 starts) against his San Francisco rivals in his career. Vogelsong, (5-7 with a 3.99 ERA), is 0-0 with a 3.12 ERA in three starts against the Dodgers this year.

Overnight the Giants added Jake Peavy to their rotation, trading left-hander Edwin Escobar and right-hander Heath Hembree to the Red Sox to get him. They’ll also get cash to pay at least some of his salary. One might look at his record (Peavy, 33, is 1-9 with a 4.72 ERA and has allowed an American League-high 20 home runs) and say “Huh?” Well, Peavy and Giants’ manager Bochy were together with the Padres for Peavy’s first five years in the bigs. Also, he’s got a 8-5 record with a 3.90 ERA in 14 career starts at San Francisco’s AT&T Park.

The end of July is probably a little early to be declaring a series crucial, but this one feels important because the Giants and Dodgers have been trading first place between them for the past three weeks or so, with the largest margin no greater than the two games it was before the Giants lost to the Phillies yesterday. In light of that, the Dodgers set their rotation early; it will be their top three starters Greinke, Kershaw and Ryu to face the back end of the Giants’ rotation: Tim Lincecum, Ryan Vogelsong and Yusmeiro Petit.

Notes: Puig may start tonight. He took extra BP Wednesday. Ramirez is probably not going to start until later in the series, if at all. The Giants have won 7 of the 10 games the two ancient rivals have played so far this season. The Sunday game will be televised on ESPN at 8:07PM ET.

Josh Beckett has come off the 15-day DL and will pitch tonight, no matter that his hip has a torn labrum and two cysts. He’s making a bid for the National League’s Comeback Player of the Year with a record of 6-5 (okay, not real impressive) and an ERA of 2.26 (very impressive) and his first career no-hitter. He’ll face Vance Worley, who is 2-1 with a 3.38 ERA. Worley started off in the Pirates’ rotation in June with three good starts, but he’s gotten out of whack in his last three appearances: his ERA in those games is 5.79 and opponents hit .298 over that stretch.

Puig and Ramirez each had follow-up X-rays on their hands yesterday and they came back negative, showing no breaks. The speculation is that Puig is closer to returning than Ramirez.

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